Maidenhead Golf Club to relocate over 1,500 homes plan

Maidenhead Golf Club has agreed to give up its 24-year lease of the council-owned site early

A 120-year-old golf club in Berkshire is to relocate to make way for up to 1,500 new homes.

Maidenhead Golf Club has agreed to give up its 24-year lease of the council-owned 130-acre (52-hectare) site early - paving the way for development.

Club president Ron Stuart said members voted unanimously in favour of the deal but admitted there had been "a lot of sadness and frustration."

He said they had been offered £16.25m to vacate the site within three years.

Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Council said it planned to enter into a joint partnership to develop the site which would include 30% affordable housing for local people, as well as new schools, health facilities and road improvements.

Mr Stuart said the cash offered by the council to leave the site would enable it to relocate, either by purchasing or building, "without any problems whatsoever".

"We have opened initial talks with one or two locations and we'll just have to wait for the next eight months before we can finalise anything," he added.

Prior to the deal Mr Stuart said emotions at the club had "run very high".

"There's a lot of sadness and frustration - people are unhappy - but there's an overwhelming sense of reality.

"We are in a location where we were always going to be vulnerable to building projects."

He added: "In a way we now have a second life and we can move on."